It was utter chaos and a serious administrative failure at Kota Railway station on Sunday when students from Bihar were scheduled to leave for their homes. The district administration had sent a message to around 1000 students and over 2000 students reached the railway station as they had received a message from their coaching institute to do so. Matters escalated to a point where those who had requisite permission from the administration were left out while others were screened and seated in the train. Ultimately Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is the Kota MP, had to intervene and arrange another train so that all those who had reached the station leave for Bihar.
Special trains for the 12 thousand Bihar students have been arranged between May 3 and 6 and the first train was scheduled to leave at 10 am on Sunday for Begusarai. Kota district administration had sent a message to around 1000 students to report at the railway station. However, more than 2000 students reached the railway station and half of them had a message from their coaching institute to report for travel.
The district administration and Kota police watched helplessly as the representatives from the coaching institutes took charge of all activity at the railway station and seated students without adequate permission from the administration. As a result all others who were reporting got stopped at the gate of the railway station and a three kilometre long queue of auto rickshaws was seen outside the railway station. The students with requisite permission were upset at being denied travel and voiced their ire and were adamant to leave the day itself. Those without permission said that their coaching institute had told them that a message from the district administration was not necessary.
The matter was sorted after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla spoke to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and a second train to Begusarai was arranged. The speaker tweeted to inform, “On receiving information about the large number of students travelling from Kota to Bihar, have spoken to Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal and one more train has been arranged for Begusarai. This train will leave between 3 and 4 pm.”
The remaining students left Kota late in the afternoon by the second special train. Trains will leave for Bihar from Kota till May 6. There are yet around 10000 students from Bihar in Kota. The trains will travel to different districts in Bihar.
